Simple, and paleo. Yes, I know cheese isn't "Paleo", but cheese also elicits a much, MUCH weaker insulin response than actual milk, feta cheese doesn't contain lactose, and the fatty acid profile of most cheeses is great. That ain't a green light to eat a whole block of Gouda in one sitting there, Mr. Piggie.

I got my H1N1 vaccine on Friday; initially, a while back, I had some different views about both the vaccine and the actual virus itself. I thought:

The whole pandemic thing was overblown. I figured folks were freaking about nothing. and

The vaccine wasn't tested properly, and we'd have a huge outbreak of auto-immune disorders like Guillain-Barre.

Well, so far I've been wrong about #1, and hopefully I'll be wrong about #2. I was also fairly sure I had H1N1 in early June; 3 times that month I had flu-like symptoms of fever, chills, headaches, and body aches after seeing a patient at the end of May with similar complaints. But did I? Now, I don't think so. I think I had *A* viral infection, exacerbated by overtraining (Crossfit + hours long mountain biking + high dose fish oil = suppressed immunity.)

Wait, whoa, wha? How does fish oil tie into this? Isn't it the ambrosia of all things Crossfit? Like anything, balance is key. If you've done the homework I prescribed on fish oil (you read the WHOLE thing a few days back before getting bored and Googling some cheesy porn, right? Right.), you'll know that the whole point of taking it is to balance PRO-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids, like arachidonic acid(AA) and linoleic acid(LA), with ANTI-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids like eicosapentaenoic(EPA) acid and docosahexaenoic(DHA) acid.

The issue lies with heavy viral loads and suppressed inflammatory response; while everything you read these days is in regards to chronic inflammation (Celiac, gluten, lectins, insulin, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, etc etc), these same inflammatory mediators are responsible for our kick-ass immune system. What happens when you cut yourself? Inflammation. Bust up a shoulder? Inflammation. Have a cold due to a virus? Inflammation. THIS is how the human body deals with foreign pathogens.

Suppress that system too much, and you have issues. In my case, I was training too much, not eating enough (I'm normally fairly low carb, which isn't an issue with Crossfit. It is with extended endurance type training, like mountain biking), and trying to deal with a virus. So, lesson learned.

I should go back and add to the fish oil post, because essentially it's not complete without a caveat about immunity suppression.

It felt like I was hit by a bus on Saturday as the vaccine kicked in some flu-like symptoms. I can't imagine what the fullblown would be like, but I know our EMS service has been run ragged, the ER had been full, and I seriously underestimated everything.

Sunday WOD, since Saturday was a write-off:

Push Press/Push Jerk

I was inspired by Seano's 165#x5 push press, so I figured I'd see where I was at. Did I say painful WOD? Yup. Mentally.
95#x5
115#x5
135#x5 Starting to also auto-pushjerk this.
155#x3, Split jerk
175#x1. That's all, folks.

Fairly disappointed; I was hoping for 175#x3 in a split jerk, at least. That push press, and anything strict overhead, just crushed my shoulder; my avoidance of training overhead to SAVE my shoulder is a vicious circle of DE-training. I have a MRA (magnetic resonance arthrogram---they jam a big-assed needle into my shoulder, inject radio-opaque dye, and do an MRI. Sweet!) on Nov 25th. All this shit started in Feb of this year. Gotta love our super-speedy medical system. No, not really.